Victron MultiPlus-II 48 v System

[Jennifer]

Woah that's.... loud. Thank you.

That's why we don't install them above our headboard. Unless you're in an RV or super small cabin you should be able to find a place where it's out of earshot. Think of the bright side, if you're a Star Wars light saber fan, you'll be in heaven. ?

 

[HRTKD]

I want UL certified as I'd like it to pass city inspection. Currentconnected shows the inverter as UL 1741 certified but Victron shows UL 458? Which is it?

If the inverter you're looking at is like my Multiplus, there are two versions. One with UL 1741, the other without that certification. Based on Victron's datasheet, the other one may only be certified UL 458.

While I don't have the Multiplus II and mine is only 12 volt, it's nice and quiet. I have it in a closet and I can just barely hear it from outside the closet when the fan is cranked to 100%.

 

[HighTechLab]

Something like this (not my video):

Now, this could be due to a firmware version; I'm not sure which one I'm running. I'll see if I can update to the latest and if it helps. Not sure when I will have time for this though...

Very not normal for near idle. I don't think a firmware update would fix that, it sounds like it's damaged...which I've seen where the sheetmetal gets tweaked in shipping and then it rattles like crazy.

 

[radiocq]

Very not normal for near idle. I don't think a firmware update would fix that, it sounds like it's damaged...which I've seen where the sheetmetal gets tweaked in shipping and then it rattles like crazy.

Dexter, you're everywhere! Thanks for the info.

Any chance you can comment on the two varieties of the multiplus ii 3000va? One that is UL certified and one that is not?

 

[HighTechLab]

The most notable differences are that the UL 1741 certified version has a bigger wiring compartment, which is a huge improvement in my opinion especially when operating the spring-terminals.

There are other various changes such as the ventilation slots are changed to round holes, since UL requires no bigger than a 1/4" hole...I would presume to prevent sticking a fork inside

I plan to make some videos soon, one specifically on the differences between these units...but we're getting ready to move to a new warehouse because the current one is packed full and my area for recording is being reused for shipping at the moment.

 

[HRTKD]

I think I like the wiring compartment in the picture above. My Multiplus has the wiring compartment offset from the wall by a good 6" which means the wires need to be bent back toward the wall to get them secured.

 

[brandonboosted]

Thanks Dexter.

 

[Scat]

Love your handle... CQ, CQ, CQ DX....

Great choice going Victron, it's what I'm running. While the others will answer your physical noise question, I'll answer the one closer to our hearts..... You're going to want to grab some type 31 large ferrite rings for your PV's going into the solar charge controller, made a huge difference to me but get the large ones, as you need to do LOTS of wraps, I have 12 on each wire.

PS: "make some money back" LOL, YEW PHUNNY.... Victron's always coming out with something cool to buy, resign to the fact right now that this is a break even lifestyle at best... LOL

73
Jen
KB6JEN, VE7OTH, formerly VK2WD

Love your handle... CQ, CQ, CQ DX....

Great choice going Victron, it's what I'm running. While the others will answer your physical noise question, I'll answer the one closer to our hearts..... You're going to want to grab some type 31 large ferrite rings for your PV's going into the solar charge controller, made a huge difference to me but get the large ones, as you need to do LOTS of wraps, I have 12 on each wire.

PS: "make some money back" LOL, YEW PHUNNY.... Victron's always coming out with something cool to buy, resign to the fact right now that this is a break even lifestyle at best... LOL

73
Jen
KB6JEN, VE7OTH, formerly VK2WD

@Jennifer What do the type 31 large ferrite rings do?

 

[cinergi]

I have two quattro's in the basement of my RV and my bedroom is directly above it. The RV does a poor job of silencing noise. And yet, I can barely hear the quattro's if the fans are running (pretty rare) and I can't hear the hum at all. If I'm in the basement, then yes I can hear them (faint hum and fans if they're on) .. but it's not obnoxious by any means.

 

[CTS]

There is a noticeable hum on my 3kVA 48V Multiplus-II (230V, EU model)

From the experience of your unit, how is it at night when the loads are low? Would the hum be noticeable outside of some bedrooms in a hall closet? Would try to sound proof the closet as much as possible.

This will be in an off grid cabin and I expect to have low to no loads at night, during the day wont matter that much.

 

[Jennifer]

@Jennifer What do the type 31 large ferrite rings do?

Cut down on RFI on ham radio equipment. https://palomar-engineers.com/rfi-kits/solar-system-rfi

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

From the experience of your unit, how is it at night when the loads are low? Would the hum be noticeable outside of some bedrooms in a hall closet? Would try to sound proof the closet as much as possible.

This will be in an off grid cabin and I expect to have low to no loads at night, during the day wont matter that much.

It would be. I don't know if I'm running the latest firmware and if that solves anything though. They're in a separate building, so I don't really care about it... I'll look into it when I find the time.

 

[Breeze]

After a couple fun threads on EG4 inverters, reliability, and ground/neutral bonding, I'm instead going with a 48 v Victron system using the following components with the intent to add a charge controller later on. My primary goal is 1-2 days backup if grid is down. My secondary goal is making some money back on solar storage. I'd like to share information, system details, and ask some questions before I pull the trigger. Here are the main parts:

Name	Cost	Tax	Shipping	Total Cost	Tax Rebate
2x 5 kWh SOK Batteries 48v (UL 1973)	$3,299.98​	$198.00​	$323.99​	$3,821.97​	$989.99​	$5,713.17​	for DIY system
Victron 48v Multiplus-II 3000 VA (UL 1741)	$1,456.90​	$87.41​		$1,544.31​	$437.07​	$4,187.93​	after 30% tax credit?
Victron Cerbo-S GX (Lite) System Controller	$272.85​	$16.37​		$289.22​	$81.86​
Victron Current Transformer for Multiplus-II	$54.40​	$3.26​		$57.66​	$16.32​

The Victron will support a critical loads sub panel of 10 or so 120 v circuits. Its AC input will have a 50 A breaker in my main panel and its AC output will feed the sub panel through a breaker. When in inverting mode the NG bond will be in the inverter. When in pass-through the NG bond will be in the main panel (per NEC, I believe).

Thanks to you all, I was trying to think of a simple way to leverage my existing grid-tied, roof mounted 4.5 kW Enphase IQ7+ array. I think I've done that by including the cerbo and current transformer. The idea is the cerbo/CT will monitor my grid-tied over production and tell the inverter to charge the battery when the array is overproducing. This is (slightly) advantageous as when I buy from the utility I'm buying at 17 cents/kWh but when I sell to the utility the rate is 8.5 cents/kWh (on average). I can charge up the batteries and buy less at night or during high TOU. The thing is I can do that with my Leaf (62 kWh) EV if I pickup an Emporia or OpenEVSE. That's way cheaper! But again, my primary goal is backup... then I want some payback. But this stuff is expensive!

So some questions!

1. How loud is the Multiplus II 3000 VA? This is my main question! It's in my basement which is a finished living space and play room. Bedrooms are on the first floor directly above it. I anticipate the average load on the system will be ~450 W with the only frequently running loads being the fridge (~250 W) and furnace (~200 W). I've heard the fans are quiet and there is a transformer hum. I don't want to hear this thing when sleeping. That's completely a deal breaker. Our home uses about 11 kWh a day.
2. I want UL certified as I'd like it to pass city inspection. Currentconnected shows the inverter as UL 1741 certified but Victron shows UL 458? Which is it?
3. This system costs $5700 upfront! Ouch. I think it all qualifies for the 30% home battery tax credit, right?
4. Enphase just announced bi-directional EV charging! I like Enphase. However, adding their 10 kWh battery installed is $14,000. Theirs would be silent and be able to solar charge when the grid is down thanks to the iq8s. Otherwise mine does everything theirs does for $5.7k. However, maybe I should just wait a year and use my leaf with their future bi-directional EVSE? I don't know what it will cost... As a leaf owner, I've been waiting for this for a while. 62 kWh just sitting there... It would be the perfect blend of home backup and solar capture to use later without having to keep batteries in the basement. I'm so conflicted!

I hope you all will help me and I hope my questions are useful to someone else on this forum. Thanks!

Answer to no. 2: I noticed, on the Victron website, that the 120V model is shown as UL 1741 certified, but the 120Vx2 unit is UL 458.

 

[MN-Solar]

Can any owners of the multiplus II 48/3000 comment on the rated idle current, the data sheet says 11w. I would also be interested if anyone has any test data on real world power numbers max load and overload durations. I can work with the 3000va rating, the 2400w is a bit concerning, but i,m going to assume that is at .80pf.

 

[HighTechLab]

Can any owners of the multiplus II 48/3000 comment on the rated idle current, the data sheet says 11w. I would also be interested if anyone has any test data on real world power numbers max load and overload durations. I can work with the 3000va rating, the 2400w is a bit concerning, but i,m going to assume that is at .80pf.

Well, unless you are running a resistive heater or an EV charger, your loads probably don't have a power factor of 1. What kind of loads are you trying to run?

 

[MN-Solar]

Well, unless you are running a resistive heater or an EV charger, your loads probably don't have a power factor of 1. What kind of loads are you trying to run?

Common household and kitchen appliances. All of my larger loads are are measuring.99pf with microwave being the worst at .89

Not trying to get into the weeds here, I'm just looking for some confirmation that Victron's data sheets are accurate when it comes to rated output and idle current. The continuous output is rated at 3000va and 2400w at 25c, one of those numbers is wrong unless you assume .8pf.

It's interesting you mentioned ev charger, are they known to have a good pf? Will put out a video with two x mp 2 48/3k in split phase and loaded it with his tesla charger. Seemed stable at 20A a/c load, 2321+2297w according to cerbo, immediate shutdown when charger raised to 21A, would be helpful to confirm this number with a clamp meter. He doesn't mention ambient temp or pf of the charger so the value of that data is limited. The cerbo reported 5145w from battery, 4618w a/c load, that's 90% conversion efficiency, I wonder if the peak efficiency rating of 95% shows up at lower output levels?

 

[MN-Solar]

Answer to no. 2: I noticed, on the Victron website, that the 120V model is shown as UL 1741 certified, but the 120Vx2 unit is UL 458.

Regarding the ac coupled solar, there's some ess information from victron mentioned by CC rep. last time we talked, he said a/c coupled output shouldn't exceed the victron inverter output.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Common household and kitchen appliances. All of my larger loads are are measuring.99pf with microwave being the worst at .89

Not trying to get into the weeds here, I'm just looking for some confirmation that Victron's data sheets are accurate when it comes to rated output and idle current. The continuous output is rated at 3000va and 2400w at 25c, one of those numbers is wrong unless you assume .8pf.

It's interesting you mentioned ev charger, are they known to have a good pf? Will put out a video with two x mp 2 48/3k in split phase and loaded it with his tesla charger. Seemed stable at 20A a/c load, 2321+2297w according to cerbo, immediate shutdown when charger raised to 21A, would be helpful to confirm this number with a clamp meter. He doesn't mention ambient temp or pf of the charger so the value of that data is limited. The cerbo reported 5145w from battery, 4618w a/c load, that's 90% conversion efficiency, I wonder if the peak efficiency rating of 95% shows up at lower output levels?

You may not realize it, but all inverters are rated in VA. Most are just lazy and say Watts.

Regarding the ac coupled solar, there's some ess information from victron mentioned by CC rep. last time we talked, he said a/c coupled output shouldn't exceed the victron inverter output.

AC-coupling and the Factor 1.0 rule [Victron Energy]

www.victronenergy.com

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

Can any owners of the multiplus II 48/3000 comment on the rated idle current, the data sheet says 11w.

It's 10 to 11W. It's one of the reasons I got this one for my 'winter inverter'. It has some of the lowest idle current available for an inverter this size.

 

[740GLE]

Common household and kitchen appliances. All of my larger loads are are measuring.99pf with microwave being the worst at .89

Not trying to get into the weeds here, I'm just looking for some confirmation that Victron's data sheets are accurate when it comes to rated output and idle current. The continuous output is rated at 3000va and 2400w at 25c, one of those numbers is wrong unless you assume .8pf.

Try loading up a kitchen aid stand mixer kneeding bread dough, I saw something like .5 - .6pf towards the end of the kneeding process.

The power triangle doesn’t lie, it’s rated at 3kw at 1pf, start dropping that PF your available watts will also drop.